An Icon of Saint Ephraim of Nea Makri at the General Hospital of Kalymnos is Exuding Myrrh

A report from Wednesday, March 18, 2026, that is causing awe and deep emotion on the island of Kalymnos has emerged, as the icon of Saint Ephraim of Nea Makri, which is located inside the General Hospital of the island, is said to have exuded myrrh.

The incident was initially noticed by a nurse at the hospital, who immediately informed the administrator, Pantelis Kongas, stating that she observed liquid flowing from the left eye of the icon. The administrator went to the location and verified the event, proceeding to promptly inform the ecclesiastical authorities, namely Protopresbyter Amphilochios Sakalleros and Metropolitan Paisios of Kalymnos, Leros and Astypalaia.

Indeed, the Metropolitan collected the liquid with cotton, which — according to testimonies — emitted a characteristic fragrance, while a Paraklesis service was held and the Apolytikion of Saint Ephraim was chanted. In a brief statement, the Metropolitan approached the event theologically, noting: “The icon is exuding myrrh. A miracle is not subject to investigation, and for us this is a blessing of God.” He further stated that “the mystery is not to be examined, but experienced,” without, however, any official announcement being issued by the Metropolis.

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily Three for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Today the Holy Church, by the bringing forth of the Honorable Cross, gives us an image of the sufferings of Christ, recalling them especially now, as we complete the course of the Holy Fast, and thereby showing us that we too must bear our cross.

Today also is celebrated the memory of Saint Alexios, the Man of God, whom we especially venerate in our church.

But this day is especially dear to us also because it is and will be the name day of Batiushka, Father Alexei. Today the Lord has granted us to meet this day for the first time without him, and in the radiance of the Holy Cross. If today we have prayed to the Lord that His Holy Cross may not be fruitless in us, that, having venerated His sufferings, we may go from strength to strength and ourselves become laborers in the vineyard of Christ, let us remember that among us there was a man who not only bore his own cross, but also bore upon himself the countless crosses of his spiritual children. He was like the one of whom John Climacus speaks — that there are tears and sorrow according to God, and there is joy according to God, and that both — this and that — are sometimes united in one laborer of Christ.

The Eyewitness Account of Saint Stephen the Melodist of the Massacre of the Holy Fathers of the Lavra of Saint Savvas

 

At that time, Fathers died in the Lavra of Saint Savvas by a martyric death, which was described as an eyewitness account by Saint Stephen the Melodist, who was a Hagiopolite and a Sabbaite (+ 807), at the urging of the abbot of the Lavra, Basil, who was absent at the time of the barbarian raid. It is true that the work does not mention a name, but in the biography of Saint Stephen the Wonderworker, its author Leontios, speaking of a certain pious man, a fellow student of Abba Theoktistos, says that he was numbered among the Fathers who were slain by the barbarians in the Great Lavra, “whose account was written by the all-virtuous Abba Stephen, the pride of our Lavra.”

This work bears the following title: “Narration, that is, the Martyrdom of the Holy Fathers who were slain by the barbarians, namely the Saracens, in the Great Lavra of our Holy Father Savvas.” Stephen composed many canons for those who were slain in the Lavra on March 20.

Stephen became an eyewitness of the events in the Lavra, “being one of the monks in this holy Lavra, though unworthy, and one of those who were present at the time of the destructive incursion and attack of the barbarians.” This plundering incursion and attack of the Saracens against the Lavra must be attributed to their inclination toward looting, since they believed that in the cells of the Fathers they would find countless buried treasures. In the year 788, when Elias was Patriarch and Basil was abbot, a great civil war broke out among the Saracens in Palestine. Dividing themselves into two factions, they caused many disturbances by unlawful means: how many robberies, bloodshed, and unjust murders they committed, how many villages they left in ruins by delivering them to the flames, after first plundering their inhabitants and driving them away or killing them — “I do not have the ability, nor is it appropriate to the present time and subject to recount them in order,” says Stephen. Everywhere these monstrous beings brought dreadful desolation. Numerous and populous cities were laid waste. Eleutheropolis (Beit Jibrin) they captured and rendered uninhabited; likewise Ascalon and Gaza and Sariphaia and other cities they took, destroyed, and turned into pastures. They set ambushes, stripped passersby, and wounded them — and these considered themselves fortunate because they had escaped death. Each one sought how to seize what did not belong to him and to amass wealth from others’ possessions and money. And if any of them happened to be angry with someone, or especially against Christians, he seized the opportunity and attempted by violence to kill him and seize his property.

Prologue in Sermons: March 20

Endure to the End

March 20

(The Holy Martyr Photini, the Samaritan Woman with whom Christ spoke at the well, and those who were martyred with her.)*

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Once the Lord appeared to the Holy Martyr Sebastian and the other martyrs who suffered with him and said: “Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). And then, turning to Sebastian, He said further: “Blessed is he who completes his struggle to the end!” And with these words He ascended into heaven.

Let us dwell, brethren, on these last words of the Lord and speak about what they teach us.

The words of the Savior, “Blessed is he who completes his struggle to the end,” undoubtedly teach us endurance to the end. And, of course, it must be so. “Everything is good that ends well,” says human wisdom. Otherwise, it is the opposite — and consider, for example, salvation and good works: what benefit will there be for you from good deeds, if today you perform them, and tomorrow you cast them into the dirt? What benefit will there be if today you begin to fast, to pray, to read the word of God, and tomorrow you abandon all this and go to houses of vice, to corrupt companions, to houses of drunkenness and debauchery?

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily Two for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

The Holy Church, leading us into the most important part of the Holy Fast —into the days of the Veneration of the Holy Cross — and saying: “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” reveals to us our most important task on earth: to deny ourselves, to renounce what is sinful within us, to take up our cross and follow the Savior.

Saying this and glorifying the Holy Cross, the Church comes to our aid so that we may not fall into despair, thinking that this commandment is beyond our strength, and during the 5th and 6th weeks of Great Lent it gives us two images, two examples — John of the Ladder and Mary of Egypt.

The Church says to us: “Behold, you have been walking in this great school — you have walked, beginning with the awareness of sin within yourselves and mourning it together with the first Adam; you have passed through the Correct Glorification (2nd week), which brings us out of that state and leads us to the doors of paradise through life in the mysteries; you have passed through the illumination of the Taboric light (3rd week), and have come to what is most essential in your present life — to the bearing of the cross, to co-crucifixion with the Lord upon it.” And now the Holy Church gives us a visible example of people who, being just as sinful and bearing the flesh and sin of Adam as we do, have ascended to the height of the first blessedness.

A Sobering Reality: The End of Sinners (Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani)

By Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani

Denial, apostasy from God, and the violation of the divine commandments demonstrably bring about painful ends to the lives of unrepentant sinful people.

Let us mention some cases:

In the first book of Genesis, we have the case of Cain, who killed his brother Abel. The text writes concerning his punishment: “And now you are cursed from the earth… groaning and trembling you shall be” (Gen. 4:11–12). God says: You will be cursed and as a stranger from this land after your criminal behavior toward your brother, and you will be continually in a state of groaning and fear, and as one pursued you will wander upon the earth.

Another case we find in the time of Noah, where people were “inclined toward evil all the days” (Gen. 6:5). They had literally acquired a carnal mindset. The text writes: “And the Lord God said: My Spirit shall not remain in these men forever, because they are flesh” (Gen. 6:3). The phrase “because they are flesh” is terrible and expresses precisely the wholly carnal mindset of those people. And the punishment came with the flood (Gen. 7:10–24).

Holy Martyrs Chrysanthos and Daria in the Hymnography of the Orthodox Church

 

By Fr. George Dorbarakis

These Saints lived when the emperor was Numerian (around the end of the 3rd century A.D.). Chrysanthos had a father who was a senator from Alexandria, named Polemon, while Daria was from Athens. Because Chrysanthos was initiated into divine things by some Christian, he was baptized and preached Christ with boldness, with the result that his own father imprisoned him. However, since he did not yield but remained firm and unmoved in his faith, his father sent and brought from Athens a beautiful and fair maiden, named Daria, in order to marry her to him, so that through his love for her he might move him away from the faith of the Christians. But Daria, instead of persuading Chrysanthos, was rather persuaded, and abandoning the impiety of idolatry, she accepted baptism. Indeed, they agreed that both of them would preserve their virginity.

When the fact of Daria’s conversion also became known, they were accused before the prefect Cellerinus, who handed them over for examination to the tribune Claudius the prefect. He then punished them with many kinds of tortures, but when he saw them overcoming them and not yielding, he himself changed and believed in Christ, together with his wife Hilaria and their two children, Jason and Maurus, as also happened with the soldiers under their command, who later also received the crown of martyrdom, on the nineteenth day of the month of March. And Claudius himself, after being tied to a stone and thrown into the sea, met his end, while his children and his soldiers were beheaded. Saints Chrysanthos and Daria were thrown into a pit, and after earth was thrown over them, they were buried alive, and thus they received the end of their martyrdom.

Prologue in Sermons: March 19

Against Grudges

March 19

(A Discourse of Anastasios, Abbot of Sinai, "On Not Having Anger")

By Archpriest Victor Guryev

Many people, harboring resentment against their neighbor, pay little attention to the fact that resentment greatly harms the salvation of their soul. While bearing ill will against their brothers, they at the same time pray to God, go to church, receive the Holy Mysteries, give alms, and do other good works — and they think that this is as it should be: that resentment is one thing and good works another, and that one does not interfere with the other. But they are mistaken.

The Lord does not accept even the prayers of those who hold evil in their hearts; He rejects their almsgiving and does not forgive them, until they uproot the evil from their heart and are reconciled with their neighbor. Let us hear how Saint Anastasios, Abbot of Sinai, teaches about this in his discourse "On Not Having Anger."

Homily One for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Sergius Mechev)

Homily One for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross 

By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev

"We venerate Your Cross, O Master, and we glorify Your holy Resurrection."

The Holy Church did not establish the feast of the Honorable and Life-giving Cross in order simply to remind us once again of Christ’s sufferings on the Cross, but, my dear ones, so that on this feast we might have the opportunity to enter more deeply into that greatest sacrifice which the Savior offered for our sins. And if, constantly remembering the Lord’s death on the Cross, today we glorify His Honorable and Life-giving Cross, then perhaps — at least in these holy moments, after we have with such love sung, according to the order of the Church, the Vespers and Matins of this great feast — perhaps, I say, these holy moments will help us, who do not wish to walk His holy path, to penetrate at least somewhat into the mystery of the suffering of Him Who offered the greatest sacrifice, Who was crucified for the sins of people, for their salvation.